Media handing devices that process media documents and bunches of media documents after separating the media documents for individual processing downstream within the media handling devices. Media handing devices include a variety of integrated components.
As the media document is processed through the media handling device, a variety of sensors are activated and deactivated to track movement of the media document and indicate where the media document is located along the transport pathway. These sensors include image sensors for taking different image characteristics of the media document and other sensors for other purposes.
One such other sensor, is a metal detection sensor located in an infeed module of the media handling device. This sensor is configured to detect metal that may have inadvertently been included within a bunch of media documents inserted through the infeed mouth of the media handling device. Metal (e.g., coins, paperclips, staples, wires, etc.), which is present in a bunch of media documents, can be very problematic for other componentry of the media handling device, causing such componentry to: malfunction, jam, suspend a current transaction, and place the media handling device in a condition where it is unusable until serviced by a technician (offline).
Existing metal detection processing is too sensitive to noise conditions that do not indicate the presence of metal in the bunch of media documents, but rather, incorrectly detects existing variances for metal comprised in the existing componentry of the media handling device as being metal. When noise is improperly identified as metal, an existing transaction may be suspended and support staff needs to physically attend to the media handling device to bring it back online for service.
Moreover, existing metal detection processing often misses small pieces of metal embedded between documents in a bunch. This too is problematic because the undetected metal can jam and even permanently damage downstream componentry; thereby, necessitating replacement parts and creating an unreasonable period of time during which the media handling device is unavailable for customer use.
Therefore, there is a need for improved accuracy for metal detection at the infeed portion of media handling devices.